Taylor Swift - Midnights (October 21, 2022) Album • Page 54

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“Weird Goodbyes” was a major red flag for me. They should work with a producer like BJ Burton that will push their sound in a new direction. The stagnation was already starting to show on the last record (some would say Sleep Well Beast, I think that record still has the it factor)

 

I honestly thought all of the people speculating about more new music or some sort of acoustic album being the surprise were acting crazy, and I was even thinking to myself like jeez just chill and enjoy the 13 new songs were are getting....

...and lo and behold my old ass wakes up to find out there's 7 extra songs that are really f---ing good on top of the album itself.

 

No I think this is a feeling a lot of people are having/will have today.

She could've given us at least a week before dropping the 3 a.m. tracks

 

I will say it does seem like she at least tried to break it up with there clearly being the album proper and then the bonus songs being seen as extra stuff.

I'm always blown away by her output and the sheer strength of the stuff that doesn't make the cut. She's reminding me of Springsteen back in the day in that regard, if not really stylistically / musically.

I personally love it and can't imagine being an artist and just chopping songs as good as "Bigger Than The Whole Sky" or "Would've, Could've, Should've" off of an album and then sitting on them for a year or two (or forever in some case) and not releasing them.

 

I'm actually really high on IAETF overall (and I'm also not sure I'm familiar with Burton haha) but we're def on the same page in terms of sentiment. I'm just starting to feel hyper aware of some of the Dessner bro signature sounds. Sleep Well Beast is a borderline masterpiece and felt like a nice reinvention, but between folklore, evermore, BRM, these songs, and the last few National records more generally speaking, I feel like there are some choices in both the production and the songwriting that have gotten a ton of mileage dating back as far as Trouble Will Find Me. I love a lot of that music and it's more of a "you know it when you hear it" thing than anything specific I can fully put my finger on, but in 2022 I'm hearing the stagnation for sure.

 

She dropped the surprise tracks to get as many streams as possible. Platinum in one week: four vinyl as a clock, surprise extra songs, new music video later in the week... all building blocks.

 

I was thinking about her as the closest thing to modern Springsteen analog, and I started to wonder this morning if/when she'll hit the legacy artist phase of her career. Bruce has made several good records since Tunnel of Love, but coming to his discography for the first time as a teenager in the early 2000s I could tell that there was some point in the late 80s or 90s where he just stopped mattering as much.

In other words, this still feels like a massive EVENT album, but I'm not sure there's any artist who's survived 3-4 decades as a new release A+ lister. Just hard to imagine a Taylor release that doesn't matter like that.

 

They need to drop the 3 AM edition on vinyl

 

Didn’t start listening until today and there have been many pages of posts since its been available. Whats the consensus on the strongest and weakest tracks?

 

She still has a way to go before that. She has a pretty young fan base still. I feel like most artists, no matter how great the material is, have a hard time pushing new material once their audience gets to 40+.

It’s rare that artists have those big breakthrough albums once their audiences get older.

 

they need to add the Target bonus tracks to it as well (preferably Hits Different between Mastermind and The Great War, and the remixes at the very end).

 

Weird Goodbyes is a poor choice for a stand-alone/early single with no other real studio album press surrounding it.

My ideal scenario would be a National record that sounds like an even more forked up SWB with 1-2 more pleasant tracks like Weird Goodbyes mixed up. Their balance of glitchy electronic elements and fuzzed out guitar hits on SWB is my favorite of all the National sounds and I could see them making it slightly more unsettling and uneasy with maybe more prominent guitars. I liked IAETF but it seems like a ton of their very online High Violet fans couldn’t sink their teeth into clean, neat mature National (which Weird Goodbyes also fits into IMO).

 

If you’ve listened to the last two BI albums, you know BJ.

 

First listen of the album was pretty lukewarm, but I enjoyed the 3AM tracks more. Starting a second listen and am already connecting with it more. Feels like an understated version of Lover.

 

We seem kind of all over the place. I think most people like Lavender Dream a lot?

 

for those that don't care for her cussing all the time now, the edited version actually replaces words instead of just bleeping them out, except for Lavender Dream for some reason.

 

honestly improves Snow on the Beach

 

nahhhh

 

I honestly think platinum in a week is impossible at this point, but she’s making the push.

 

yup - there are essentially 4 different albums to stream (regular and 3 AM - explicit and clean) 5 CD variants and 5 vinyl variants

gonna be big numbers

 

Finally getting to sit down and look at everything after a horrendous work day and I love the Anti-Hero video lol

 

Taylor Swift cursing bothers people?

 

Personally, I love when she curses.

 

Cursing has never turned me off of music, not sure why it would only for her...